Fred woke up in the leather chair. He felt relaxed and great, and the emotional remnants of the dream he just had still lingered in his body. He did not remember anything that happened in the dream, but he knew it felt great.

He slowly opened his eyes and saw the red clay rooftops through the window. The sun was still out, but it was evening already. Suddenly, Fred panicked. He realized it was not the real world. He quickly pulled up the menu and, indeed, confirmed to himself that he was still in the game world.

He looked at the table in front of him. There was a glass tea pot with a single cup. He poured some in and took the cup into his hands, but he did not drink it. Instead, he looked at the man behind the counter in an otherwise empty bakery.

"What happened?" Fred asked.

"Oh, you feel asleep. I hope you enjoyed it. Tea is on the house." The man smiled.

Fred nodded and took a sip. The tea was serene. He felt so rested, too. Then he peeked at the clock—the real world clock. It was strange. His logical mind screamed; nothing made sense. It was late; he should be tired, yet his body and mind were anything but tired. How could the game override his feelings like that?! And why did he feel so pleasant, relaxed, and not strange at all?

"Sorry, I hope I did not cause any trouble…" Fred scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, no worries. You were the only client today, so well, you haven't disturbed anyone." The man smiled.

Fred took a few more sips. He remembered there was a cat around, but its bed was empty now. With nothing else to do, Fred logged out. There was nothing else for him to do.

The real world felt strange too. His body was tired and sleepy. But his mind was not. It was strange. He stood up, went to wash his teeth, and finally went to sleep, this time properly.

Falling asleep, however, was a bit of a challenge. He closed his eyes, and yet sleep did not fall upon him. He remembered his party, the ghosts, and the catgirl. But it felt like all of that happened yesterday, because, in a way, it all did.

"I should not sleep in the game," he promised himself.

He remembered the cat too; it had a very funny title. And somehow, thinking about the cat finally made him sleepy. As if his mind finally caught up with the tired body. Fred fell asleep, this time properly, in a proper place.

—

Fred woke up, did the morning commute, and eventually showed up at work. He saw his coworkers, and he remembered his failed promise to them. He apologized, but his apology made them look so guilty—his coworkers knew he would not meet them in time. They were seasoned players, and they knew how hard it was to travel to a new place in the game. Fred was not angry at them. After all, he did meet a friendly party and had plenty of fun in the game too.

The work day was over. After the commute and a shower, Fred finally made it to the headset. He quickly logged in and met with the party, right on time.

"So what are we going to do today?" The only girl in their group jumped up and asked.

"Well, have you noticed? Most adventurers in this town are rank D, so we should get the D too." Bjorn replied smugly.

"I suppose you know the dungeon for it too." Fred inquired.

"Yep, it's right behind the adventurer's guild. Let's go there right now!" The leader replied.

"Shouldn't we prepare?" Fred added. He did not expect it to be a straightforward challenge.

"Prepare for what? I mean this literally. We don't know exactly what the challenge is, so let's go ahead and find out. Then we will know what to prepare for." Bjorn added, and Fred nodded.

They walked for a bit and found a small wooden building. They entered inside, and a familiar popup greeted them.

> Location discovered: Dojo, The

>

> Ranked Dungeon: Dojo, The (Rank D)

>

> Recommend rank: E

>

> Enemy level: D

>

> Single Player

"Oof, do you know what 'Single Player' means?" Someone asked.

"Nope, but let's find out." Someone answered.

And they stepped through the door. As the name suggested, Fred found himself in a dojo. As evident by the soft wooden tiles he was standing on. His shoes disappeared completely, and he was standing barefoot. It smelled of bamboo and slight hints of sweat.

More importantly, he was alone. His team was missing. There was someone else, however. A fit looking guy, dressed in a white uniform, was tied together by a dark green belt. He was also barefoot and already had his weapon drawn.

Fred immediately pulled up the menu. The guy in front of him was the 'Dojo Master'. The NPC enemy.

"Welcome!" He smiled politely.

"You are the challenge, right?" Fred replied, a bit surprised. It was the first time the enemy spoke to him.

"Yep! This challenge is rather simple. You need to land a single hit on me. Use as many tries as you want. "

Fred smiled, and without further ado, he took out his sword and went right for the guy. As she swung the sword, the master took a side step, and swiftly, the master's sword brushed against Fred's chest. Luckily, it was the blunt side.

"Too slow!' The master sighed.

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Fred tried again.

"Too slow. Too predictable. Too obvious." The master continued to playfully avoid Fred's every move.

Fred broke out in sweat; he was already tired. It was absolutely clear that he needed to be smart here. He began observing the master. The master would never attack first, only counter.

Fred moved closer to him without moving the sword. As predicted, the master did not attack; he just waited for Fred's next move. Fred then decided to cast the skill; he opened the menu, and half a second later, the sword master tagged him.

"Nice, you finally started thinking. However, this won't do. Too slow."

Fred tried to cast the skill a few more times, but the guy seemed to have a lightning reaction speed. He would always tag Fred before he was able to cast the spell.

"Any hints?" Fred finally asked.

"There are many, many distinct ways you can pass the challenge. I won't tell you what those are, but I do advise you to figure this out on your own. Don't use online forums!" The master smiled. He really seemed like a helpful guy.

"Hmm, why?" Fred put out his sword. It seemed impolite to have it raised. And it was heavy, too.

"Because you will be incorrectly ranked. This rank tests your individual skill, and, well, if you simply read the solution, would it be your achievement, really?"

"I have a party; what if they pass? And I don't?" Fred was worried.

"Only a few pass this challenge on the first try."

"But what if they do? I won't be able to travel with them." Fred continued to worry.

"Most dungeons don't really have entrance requirements. Ranks are, after all, optional guidelines. But consider the opposite: if you simply cheated through this challenge, wouldn't that be like lying to your own teammates?"

"Yes, but…" Fred looked down.

"If all your problem solving skills can be summarized by a read-a-walkthrough, what will you do once you encounter a problem you never saw before? The dungeons can be pretty dangerous, and if you lie about your skill, you would put your teammates in danger. Is that something you would do?" The master explained it rather philosophically.

"I see. I should really get better then." Fred nodded.

"That is the righteous answer. And, by the way, if you said you would still read a walkthrough, I would take one disgrace damage and you would pass this challenge." He laughed confidently, but there was a sense of pride in his voice. It was infectious, and Fred raised his head up, too.

"See you then~" Fred smiled.

"See you and good luck!"

The master offered Fred a handshake, and Fred shook it. Fred then went outside.

Augustė was already waiting. She smiled as she saw Fred. Fred waved and sat down; none of them said a word to each other. Fred quickly pulled up the menu; she was still rank E. He assumed she did the same to him.

"Motherf…" Suddenly, Bjorn stormed out of the dojo. He stopped his anger midway, but it was clear he did not pass the challenge either.

A minute later, Karl came out too. He did not pass the challenge, but he was in a great mood. As if he already had a plan for it.

"Did you guys get a monologue about online walkthroughs?" Bjorn spoke up.

"I did." Fred raised his hand.

The rest of the group shook her head, but they were curious.

"Oh, so the guy went on about how we should solve it on our own, without any help. Big words for a guy who uses NPC-speed reactions. I bet the solution is some cheesy strat too."

"That makes sense." Karl added.

"How does that make sense?" Bjorn seemed to be still angry.

"Why would the game developers do this? Think about it. Remember how we first met? It was over a cheesy strat, wasn't it?" Karl politely and calmly replied.

"Oh. I see." Bjorn suddenly calmed down.

"How did you guys meet? What happened?" The girl quickly jumped in.

"Oh, well, it was a random game. Karl just wrote in chat something like, 'Wanna try this stupid strategy? I have no clue if it will work, and I was too drunk, so I went with it.' It was stupid; we lost the game, but hell, it was the most fun game I've had in weeks. So I've added Karl as a friend." Bjorn smiled.

"Oh, I see. What was it? Axe plus?" The girl curiously inquired.

"Yeah, axe and bristle." Karl replied. Augustė smiled, and Fred was clueless.

"But anyway, I see what you mean. This game wants us to pick a random strategy and have fun with it. That's why the guy insisted there are many ways to solve the challenge."

Karl nodded.

"But! Ok! Let's set some rules, then! We will all solve this challenge in our own way. We will help each other, but we will not reuse a single solution. We will not abandon each other until we find four distinct strategies to overcome it." Bjorn happily explained, and everyone nodded.

That sounded super fair and fun. Fred was also impressed with Bjorn's leadership skills.

"So, where do we go from here?" Fred finally added.

"Any ideas?" Bjorn added.

"The master does attack you. The rule is to land a single hit point on him. Even if he does ten times more damage to me, I still pass. So I just need an item or a skill that reflects a percentage of incoming damage to him. I don't know if it exists in this world, but we can ask around, right?" Karl explained.

"Yep. He said we should not look up solutions, but asking if a certain item exists should be allowed. After all, the solution is yours, and the item is just the setup. I don't have any ideas myself, so let's help you find this skill." Bjorn nodded.

Fred was not sure what to say. He remembered the master used the blunt edge, so maybe there would not be enough damage to reflect… Nah, it still hurt. There was definitely damage. The girl was quiet too, clearly busy thinking about her own solution.

They went back toward the adventuring guild. They asked around if there's a skill that reflects damage. And surely there was. A 'Light Shield'. If timed right, it would reflect physical force. But timing was not the worst part. The worst part was that this skill was locked in a dungeon in the capital. And the capital was at least a week away from here.

"Are you sure this is how you want to do it?" Bjorn asked again.

"Yep. It is a useful skill. And it is time we visited the capital, don't you think?" Karl smiled.

Fred also nodded. Having the capital on the quick travel map sounded extremely useful. There was a big map of the continent hanging on the guild's wall, and the party swarmed it.

Fred inspected the map. The shape reminded him of Europe. The capital was somewhere around where Paris was. It did not have any other name besides the capital. And it was a big area. Much bigger than the city they were currently in. No doubt the biggest city on the map.

And they were now somewhere in Austria? Maybe. Fred was not sure; he was not a geography nerd. Nevertheless, he immediately spotted another issue. There was a mountain range in between, with little roads going through.

"I don't think we can make it all the way in a single session. So we should make intermediate stops we can quick travel through." Bjorn commented.

The map on the wall did show a bunch of quick travel spots, but there were not that many of them. Only a few were in the mountain range. After all, this world was similar in size to Earth but had a hundred times fewer people. And most people here did not build cities either. The capital had lots of people, but elsewhere it was just lonely.

"By the way, if you open your map and overlay it in such a way that grid lines match, you can place markers for places you want to visit." Augustė commented.

"Oh nice, that's super useful." Bjorn added.

Fred did as told; he opened the map, zoomed out so that the gridlines matched, and saw a strange surprise. In the hidden area, somewhere in the mountains, Fred already had a golden marker. He clicked on it; it had no comment or description. He did have an option to remove it, but Fred decided to keep it for now.

"Hey, guys, I see a strange marking, but I don't remember placing it.

"Are you sure you did not place it? Maybe you did and forgot about it." Augustė replied.

"I am sure. I did not know you could place markers until now. Can you zoom out and see if you have any markers?"

"Nope, nope, nope here too." The group replied.

"Must be bug then…" Fred sighed. However, he decided to keep the marker. It was a mystery, and Fred liked mysteries.

"So shall we cross the mountains by going to the north or the south?" Bjorn returned to the previous topic.

"North." Fred insisted. The northern path went not far from where his strange marker was. It was an itch in his mind that he really wished to scratch.

Fred then added the destination and about five other spots as markers on the map. That was his path, and it did look pretty. Like a constellation of the golden stars in the dark sky.